The Others
by Kallistique
Summary: Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches lay in ruins. Dumbledore helps an old friend.
1. In Ruins

"Gather round girls, gather round!"

Their Great Hall lay in ruins.

Part from a few walls and columns that still stand erected, the roof was completely destroyed – debris lie around everywhere, covering most of the Hall and the platform where the staff were supposed to stand and stay during gatherings.

Students and staff alike were huddled together in the little spaces that were left; some using piled-up wreckage as a stump of some sort – sitting on them as a make-shift seat.

"Is everyone here?" Miss Constance Hardbroom asked, scanning around and checking everyone currently present in the Hall, mentally making a head count. Her hair was in disarray. Her normally neat and tight bun were lose – some of the dark locks covering her face. She looked sour more than ever.

She was answered with incoherent babbling from students and other staff members filing inside the hall.

"Silence please!" She called, but the loud chatters did not stop. It grew louder as a first year student, Sybil Hallow, stumbled and fell on a pile of wooden scraps. A few other girls loudly giggled.

A girl with strikingly red hair up in pig tails, Clarice Crow, though giggling herself, helped her now whimpering friend stand up.

"I SAID SILENCE!"

At the boom of Miss Hardbroom's voice all went silent at once.

"Good. Headmistress?" she called. Miss Amelia Cackle's usually calm and gentle demeanor has been overshadowed by weariness. Her hair was a mess, and her eyes lost their usual twinkling. She stood up beside Miss Hardbroom, regarding all that were present with tired, calculating eyes.

"As you can see", Miss Cackle gestured around the hall, "our beloved school is in complete shambles."

Miss Cackle fixed her gaze upon one particular student, a girl with long, dark, braided pig tails. She gazed on her for a long time, and soon everyone did the same. The girl bowed her head in shame.

"I am tired-", Miss Cackle went on, "-as I am sure you all are as well. The staff and I will have a meeting on what to do from this moment onwards. I suggest all of you, for the meantime, to camp out in the school courtyard. We will be spending the night in tents."

Whines from the students erupted.

Miss Hardbroom scoffed loudly. "Well, the school is partially destroyed and surely so do your dormitories. What do you expect?"

"Mildred Hubble", Miss Cackle called. The girl in long, dark, pig tails, Mildred Hubble, visibly stilled as she heard her name. "You will meet me, and your friends, first thing tomorrow morning." Mildred silently nodded in reply.

"Mister Blossom?" Miss Cackle called. A middle-aged man raised his hand in the air. "Yes, Miss Cackle?"

"Kindly please assist the girls in setting up the camp in the school courtyard." Miss Cackle instructed.

"Yes, on it!" Mister Blossom replied, and went off to do the arrangements.

"Now, I want all of you to follow Mister Blossom and help him set up the tents for the camp tonight. Manually. No magic. I expect you all to follow accordingly. I have enough mayhem for today. Do not even dare-" She paused, taking a deep breath. "Am I understood?"

"Yes Miss Cackle."

"Miss Drill? Miss Bat?" Miss Cackle motioned for them, and both women walked towards her until they were both in front of her. "If you can please, supervise the girls in helping Mister Blossom setting up the camp."

The short-haired blonde woman, Miss Imogen Drill, nodded earnestly in reply. A woman dressed in black with a very messy hair in a bun, Miss Davina Bat, answered Miss Cackle with a too much enthusiastic "Yes headmistress!" for Miss Cackle's liking.

"Miss Hardbroom and I will try to retrieve your things as much as we can. Remember, no magic. Do you hear me?"

"Yes Miss Cackle."

"Do _you_ hear me?" Miss Cackle reiterated warningly.

"Yes Miss Cackle!"

Miss Cackle sighed. "Alright, go on." She shooed all of them with the wave of her hand. "Let's go, Constance."

Miss Hardbroom followed her out of the hall, as the rest went off to the school courtyard to set the camp for the night.


	2. Short Notice

Note:

11-27-14_Minor revisions 

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><p>"Do we have enough rooms to accommodate them?" An elderly woman, dressed in elegant, emerald robes, asked astoundingly. "We're talking about an entire student body, Albus! And staff members!"<p>

"The girls from the Academy are not much, Minerva", the elderly wizard, Albus Dumbledore answered calmly. "And the castle's big enough. It's been unfortunate enough that this has happened to their school."

Dumbledore made his way around his desk and sat on it. "It's just for one term", he regarded them. "Just this coming term until their school premises has been restored to its former glory."

"How about their classes?" Minerva McGonagall inquired. "How about ours?"

"Classes will proceed as usual", Dumbledore replied. "We shall be assigning rooms and schedules befitting for both groups of students."He took out a piece of parchment from a drawer in his desk and examined it. "They are following a rather different curriculum."

He paused, thinking. "If in the occasion of insufficiency in spite of thorough preparations and revisions, we might have to consent conducting joint classes for both sets of students. It would be applicable only to classes with similar agenda, of course." Dumbledore said, tapping his fingers on his desk, pondering. "Like Potions for example, and Charms, which I believe is called…" He skimmed through the piece of parchment with fast eyes. "Ah, here it is. They call theirs _Spells_, apparently."

"But headmaster, they don't use-"

"That I'm aware, Severus." Dumbledore interrupted the man in dark robes. The man, Severus Snape, has long dark hair that reached just before his shoulders, parted into two like curtains on his face. His dark flowing robes make him seem like an overgrown bat.

"This idea is merely an emergency plan, if you will. It is still open for discussions and negotiations, and need I emphasize, that these are just in case situations arise.

"I just hope we keep an open mind to these adjustments", Dumbledore continued. "As I have pointed out earlier, this is just for this year."

Snape visibly snarled, but curtly nodded. "Whatever you wish, Headmaster."

"But it doesn't change the fact that they are different, Albus!" McGonagall called out, clearly appalled with the idea. "How long has it been since-"

"Wandless or not, Minerva, magic is magic."

Beside the headmaster's desk, a majestic bird in red and gold, perched up on its rack, gave a loud cry. It burst into flames, and was gone.

"Perhaps it's about time for all of us to set aside our differences, don't you think?" Dumbledore questioned. "They are still a part of our community no doubt, despite misunderstandings our ancestors have set between us all. It is, as you have said, been far too long."

McGonagall glared at Dumbledore but stayed silent.

"Amelia is an old friend", Dumbledore went on. "Regardless of our personal relations and differences, however, as a fellow head of a school which only has the good of the students in heart, I cannot simply ignore their plea for immediate help.

"I am hoping you would understand the situation they are in, Minerva, and that you would spare them compassion and for us to try to help them in any way we can, as I'm sure they would as well if we also come to them in a time of need. Even in a short notice."

McGonagall sighed. "Well, alright then. But we already have our hands full. The Triwizard Tournament! Do we- can we really handle that much?"

"Then it would be the best time to make amends, while everyone is here in one place." Dumbledore took another glance at the piece of parchment before putting it back in the drawer. "Amelia will still be the girls' headmistress, of course. There will be no additional work load for Hogwarts staff. But", Dumbledore smiled thoughtfully, eyes twinkling in insight, "I suppose we will open registrations for students from Cackle's Academy who wishes to attend classes offered in Hogwarts."

Snape and McGonagall both pursed their lips. "With limitations." Dumbledore added. "Perhaps a cut-off."

Silence grew between the three of them. A shriek was heard from the ash deposits in the rack beside the headmaster's desk and a tiny bird's head peeked out from the ashes. It gave out another shriek.

"When will they arrive, headmaster?" Snape asked.

"They will be arriving in the second week of September, after we have finalized the schedules and the rooms they will be using." Dumbledore reached for the bird in the ash deposit in the rack beside his desk and smoothed out its feathers. It cooed.

Snape nodded once, and muttered. "I see."

"Well, if you have no more questions, I'll be announcing this to the rest of the staff tomorrow morning at breakfast in the Great Hall. That is all."

Snape bowed and was the first to leave. McGonagall stayed for a while. "I hope you know what you're doing, Albus." She said, and she too, followed Snape and went out of the headmaster's office.


	3. Insights

The scent of the following morning was fresh.

In contrary to the view of a castle that lay in ruins – a few walls and columns still firmly standing tall in the midst of wreckage – the sun shone brightly, promising a good day ahead as if to mock the predicament the academy has suffered.

In the school's courtyard where the castle inhabitants are currently staying in camps, beginning signs of wakefulness stirs.

Five girls, all half-awake, went out of their tents and washed their faces on a working faucet in the corner of the courtyard. Each of them looking grim, especially a girl with long braided pig tails, Mildred Hubble, they all went out towards the rubbles that were once their school.

They went on, towards the supposed entrance of their former castle, where an elaborate main door once furnished it. After the mayhem a day ago, the castle was mostly destroyed and with it along the main door. With it gone, they walked through without much trouble.

Through the remains are a few piled up debris and the girls settled themselves on some of them; others remained standing.

"Miss Cackle said to see her first thing in the morning". Maud Moonshine, a girl with light brown hair, pronounced. Short and slightly plump, Maud dons round glasses and wore her hair in bunches. She took a look around her, and returned her gaze to her companions to address them. "But where exactly? Surely it isn't in the headmistress' office."

"I say we wait here", Ruby Cherrytree replied. She is a tall, African girl, who usually wore her frizzy black hair in pigtails. "If we do anything it will just put us in more trouble. We don't want to get in more trouble, do we?"

"But it's not my fault this time!" Mildred exclaimed. "The spell was supposed to shake the ground lightly. Lightly!" She made bold gestures with her hands for emphasis, her face scrunched up in frustration. "This time I'm really sure I didn't mess things up. I'm sure I didn't!"

"We don't really have any evidence to show that it wasn't only you who cast the spell, Milly" said Maud. Looking at Mildred's troubled form, she sighed. Standing up, she walked across where Mildred was sitting and gave her a pat in the shoulders.

"It will be alright, don't worry. It will be alright."

"I bet it was Ethel and Drusilla", Enid Nightshade accused. Enid is small and waiflike with dark hair. She shows a disdain expression on her face. "Who else could it be? I bet they used an amplifying spell so that a light shake would evolve into a full-scale destructive earthquake."

"We have no way of proving that though." Jadu Wali retorted. Jadu, a girl of Indian descent, wore her long, dark hair in a plait. She looked weary. "HB didn't see them cast the spell. She saw _you_, Milly. And knowing HB, she wouldn't consider everything we'd say to her regardless."

They grew silent.

The sun is up above them at this time. It was an hour after dawn, and the cool breeze caress their cheeks in silent comfort. A few chatters could be heard from the camp. Other students are already up and about, chatting in the midst of the remains of yesterday's destruction.

"What will happen to us now?"

"Expelled, most likely." Enid answered.

"No, I did not mean that. I already know that." Mildred said, rather bitterly. "What I mean was, what will happen to the school now?"

Another silence went past them. Jadu was fidgeting uncomfortably on her make-shift seat made from a pile of wooden scraps.

"You don't suppose HB could just-"

"I don't think so, Jadu." Maud interrupted. "HB is a powerful witch but this is a rather large-scaled devastation for anyone to handle, with or without magic."

"We're doomed either way then."

"That you are."

All five girls snapped their heads towards the voice that just joined their conversation, and there stood Miss Constance Hardbroom, looking very weary and tired, her arms folded across her chest.

"The headmistress wishes to talk to all of you." Miss Hardbroom announced, regarding them each with a hard stare. It was much colder than her usual. Although her voice is slightly lacking its familiar authority, it still made the girls uncomfortable. "Follow me." She gestured.

The girls quietly followed her. 

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><p>Note:<p>

Character descriptions are from Worst Witch Wiki


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